Plemix

Since the stylish-and-functional Sony Ericsson W580 was so successful, the announcement of W595 didn’t really surprise me at all. The new model is built around the success-formula of the W580 with new things such as the HSDPA connection added. Can it continue the legend? Read on.

The package is rather typical: a phone, a battery, a charger, a handsfree, a User’s guide with CD-Rom.

I like the Indigo Blue color very much. Frankly there are too many black models and the new color is quite refreshing.

The phone is not terribly elongated when slid up, so you can still hold it securely with one hand.

That’s a family of keys packed in that tiny space! Despite the over-crowdedness the keys are easy to access and have a nice, tactile feeling.

The keypad is nicely spaced and has a very stylish design. I have seen countless models ruined by bold, innovative but dysfunctional keypads, Sony Ericsson was clever enough to avoid that mistake by sticking to the truly usable design.

The speaker is on the bottom side of the phone with good exposure. You can listen to the ringtone and music clearly through the speaker.

The 3.2MP camera should be more than adequate for casual shooting. It would be nice to have a self-portrait mirror but I guess that might damage the design of the phone.

The only lamentable thing about the W595 is the M2 card (not included). M2 cards are pricey, small in capacity, and they have only a fraction of the market. When will Sony Ericsson ditch them and adopt the smaller but better microSD cards? You need to remove the cover (luckily, not the battery) to change card.

In the Walkman player, songs can be grouped according to artists, albums…etc. The horizontal view has an eye-candy design that matches the exterior design of the phone nicely. To qualify for the “W” prefix, the W595 has a load of music features including MegaBass and album art support. Undoubtedly, music quality is great on the W595!

All the usual software is here. Operation is fluid and the icon layout is intuitive. The bundled Netfront browser, coupled with the HSDPA connection, make a very joyous and speedy Internet browsing experience.

The W595 has a nicer design, more megapixel and a faster 3.5G connection than its predecessor (W580). The W595 is a very nice music phone that is easy and convenient to operate.

# posted by plemix @ 9:08 PM